What does a 'normal' week look like: Tuesday

Day 2 Tuesday

The start of my Tuesday is similar to Monday, trying to be positive as the alarm (depends on the day which of the three boys is the alarm, although Kaleb is the favourite at the moment) goes off and a shower to wash off the tiredness ensues. 

Prayers start at 8.30 on a Tuesday, which is followed by an hour of admin, before my American huddle which has 5 members from a Church called Crossroads in Cincinnati Ohio, 3 staff members and 2 non staff members as well as 2 pastors from other churches in and around Cincinnati. 

In my admin time on this Tuesday I had a short conversation with Greg who is one of the leaders on my huddle and he was asking me about the Order of Mission (TOM) the covenant family of missionary leaders that we are part of. 

In the jungle preparing the leaders for the workshop in April

As with my other huddles it is a real privilege to lead it. It is such an honour to lead a group of leaders who you see grow each week in their love of Jesus as well as their understanding and practice of leadership and especially discipleship.

The process of Learning Communities through 3DM is something that we here in Oikos are trying to develop to help other churches in the jungle, Venezuela, and Brazil become more discipleship orientated. 

Ronald with his girlfriend Nancy

Normally on Tuesday it is Ronald's turn to cook for the 8-15 people that eat each day, (quite often more on Sunday). Therefore when illness strikes as passed today, people need to jump in and cook, as was the case for me today. Cooking for this many people means even rice with chicken and salad (one of our staples) takes a lot longer than cooking for the wife and 3 kids!

Tuesday after lunch is the highlight of the week. (I will now take my tongue out of my cheek). Anna and I have 3 hours of admin, finances and planning time together. 

Sunday Lunch, you get the idea!!!

After being here for 5 years we are finally keeping up-to-date and on top of all of our finances thanks to our Tuesday afternoons! (Rather than previously doing an exhausting stint of receipts and accounting every 3-6 months!) We now know exactly what we are praying in, rather than just praying for God's provision! Matthew 6:11 speaks of the daily bread we need. We always have this but it doesn't stop us regularly needing to enter our overdraft. Sometimes our theology doesn't agree with our experience. We however do not plan to put our experience above our theology.

Following our admin time the kids are ready to burn off some energy, even though Rosa who is looking after them has helped the energy burning process to begin. Therefore a walk around our local neighbourhood is needed. This walk happens to pass the bakery as well as the cake shop. Any visitors here always try the lemon meringue pie.

Following the daily battle of bath time and trying to limit the amount of water outside the bath and on the floor Anna has her mentoring time with Karina. 

Nancy, Jane (the brains behind color de esperanza, and Karina

Karina is part of our leadership team and heads up our ministry 'color de esperanza', in English 'colour of hope'. Life is not easy for Karina in general as a single mum with grown up children, 2 of these bing single mums themselves. However we know she and her children have significant callings to make a difference. We just wait for God's timing.

What does a 'normal' week look like: Monday

I have felt led to do a small series on what a typical day looks like in our ministry. Before starting I wish to make a disclaimer, there is no such thing.

When I say there is no such what I mean is that there are regular activities we do, huddles (explained later on), visiting, leadership meetings, admin times. counselling, prayer, and many other things, but no day looks the same.

So join with me on this journey through the life of the Burgess Family in Peru in a ‘typical’ week.

Day 1 Monday 7^th January 2013.

Sleeping peacefully

Sunday night had been a bad night for Kaleb which means there is a knock on effect for Anna and I. Lack of sleep is no longer an event that needs me to tell myself I am fasting sleep, it is a spirtual activity. I have died to the fact that at times I will be tired and just have to get through the day.

Following the ceremonial dragging myself out of bed and trying to think of happy thoughts, a working hot shower is always a blessing to try and shake out the sleep dust.

The daily event which is breakfast follows and the hour that Anna is having her quiet time is pretty much always a juggling act with juice to make, cereal to be covered with yoghurt, honey to put into juice, porridge to make, Kaleb to help feed, boys to stop from fighting over which colour vitamin they will get etc… 

Following breakfast the 3 boys then play or terrorise our pet rabbit Timmy, or try and find the most boring pet on record, our pet tortoise Shelly. She is normally seen moving about once every 2 weeks for about 20 minutes before returning to her dark home with under Timmy's cage. 

Shelly

8am on Monday morning is our extended prayer time as a team. This week I felt God was talking to me about war and David and Goliath and how we are called to seek first God, but also choose the right armour to advance. I also was looking at how we all have a role in the war in extending the kingdom of God, our role just differs.

To respond to the word we prayed as a group for ourselves, each other, as well as the people who are part of our church, whether that be in Pacifico, Los Cedros, San Genaro 2, or the jungle.

Rosa and Kaleb

Following Monday morning is a day I dedicate to work outside of Lima. At the moment I am preparing for several workshops we are doing this year with 3DM. We plan to do them in the jungle in April, in Venezuela in May, and Brazil in July. 

While I am working on this Anna is homeschooling Joel and Daniel. Rosa looks after Kaleb so Anna can be released to do this. 

Lunch is a community affair, and numbers vary from 6 to 12 on anyone one day, averaging around 10.  

Monday afternoon is a family affair until 5pm as I have a huddle with my Brazilian friends and pastors Rogerio and Estela, based in Sao Paulo. 

This Monday we went to one of our favourite places the local Cremolada shop. Cremoladas are a drink made from pure fruit and sugar, liquidised down and then frozen. We are far too well known in this shop as we are, firstly, Gringos (white people) with cute boys who talk to the staff. Secondly we frequent there far too often. This is mainly due to a lack of options within walking distance with three boys. (And in order to get them out of the house and to do some exercise, we need an incentive at the end!)  Daniel likes to have the Lucuma (a jungle fruit) cremolada, whilst Mark always has Coconut.  Anna often goes for a mix of mango and passionfruit and Joel sticks to Strawberry.  The staff know our 'usuals'! Thanks to Blake Goodfellow who first introduced me to this wonderful place. 

As I mentioned 5pm is time for my huddle with two amazing Brazilians Rogerio and Estela, who are working full time jobs, pastoring a church, overseeing an expanding network and had little or no support before being connected through 3DM. It is such a blessing to spend time with such people and I am really encouraged every week. 

Monday is finished with bath time (usually a time we and the floor all end up wet) and then I get to relax and Anna has her mentoring, accountability time with Nancy. 



PS:  Huddle is a group for leaders where we try to help our disciples grow in their character and competency to be more like Jesus.
PPS: 3DM is a ministry based in the US, UK, Europe and now in South America which is trying to help churches become more discipleship minded. See www.weare3dm.com for more info. 

A Shipibo jungle Wedding

JUNGLE NOVEMBER 2012: PART 3

We were really honoured as a team to have Dennis and Charmian helping us.  They are leaders of church in another part of Lima and it was great to draw on their ministry experience. 

They did a wonderful talk on covenant with your spouse and also covenant with your kids, focusing on their spiritual walk. This was a real needed area in the life of these Shipibo people. I was so blessed to be part of a team helping to lead these guys into a new deeper experience of love for our God and in their marriages and families. 

Traditional Shipibo dancing at the wedding.

We heard testimonies from men and women, lay leaders and church leaders about how their spiritual eyes were being opened.  They talked of scales being removed from their eyes and closed or immature beliefs being changed. Some realised for the first time that it was ok to include your family in your mission and ministry.  A pastor realised that the church was less important than his relationship with his 16 year old son. It was a revelation that the family is more important than the church, but not God and that loving God is not the same as loving the church at the neglect of your family.  

Erling and Maritza in their traditional outfits 

Following the times of confession, many pastors and leaders saw bright futures for their marriages. This is wonderful in a culture where most marriages are functional (often arranged) and made for protection, provision, and child bearing and not always love. This I know will now begin to change.

Mark, his kushma, and Marcial

This was massively highlighted by the wedding of Erling and Maritza on the Friday night. Starting at 7pm sharp, the 10 people present were calling all the attendees by microphone. At 7.20 incredibly there was over 200 people there celebrating the first Shipibo religious wedding in this village. What a honour to be presiding over it.

With the happy couple

We started with the short (very)cultural section and it was wonderful to see both Erling and Maritza, and many other women dressed in traditional costume. I was lent a kushma or traditional male outfit and far too small traditional headwear. Very few people own these outfits due to the cost and so there was only 3 at the whole wedding. Following more singing and the traditional Shipibo dance section I was asked to lead the modern marriage vows. 

Here comes the bride with her Dad.

The whole event was very emotional and a real pioneering step towards seeing a more united God loving church and people. It is so amazing to be involved with the Shipibo church and especially with Oikos Selva.

Starting next year I plan to be there once a month to really start to intensively train our leaders.  We also hope to lead some short term teams there and carry on the learning community conferences we have started. 

Jungle churches near and far

JUNGLE NOVEMBER 2012: PART 2:

Some of the people from Nuevo San Juan

When we started the conference on the Tuesday morning we discovered that we had leaders, pastors, and representatives from 6 churches, 3 of them from our May Learning Community conference, and 3 new ones. These churches varied in size, distance from Pucallpa and number in attendance. Most of the 40-50 people were from the hosting church, Nuevo San Juan, 13km outside of Pucallpa. Our church in Nuevo San Juan has seen their membership grow from 10 people in May, before our last learning community to now having a membership of 72, with their attendance on a Saturday and Sunday being much higher. 
There was also leaders from the church in Calleria that is now unofficially affiliated with us. They would love us to visit them next year, and potentially marry 10 or more couples!  

Dennis, Charmian, Rosa, Miguel and Vilma in the Calleria group

Junin Pablo, Nuevo Loreto, and others

We also had 2 people from Junin Pablo (24 hours away), as well as the leaders from Maritiza’s (the bride in waiting) church, which the leaders there described as much further than Junin Pablo in distance. 



However  Carlos from Santa Rosa de Renewya won the award for traveling the furthest. It took him 3 days to arrive by boat. This however only costs 40 soles, which is 10 pounds or 15 dollars. He and his church wished to join our jungle church network, Oikos Selva, and they had signed an offcial document, ratified by the local lawyer's office stating their attentions to be affiliated with Oikos! We were obviously delighted to accept them and now have to look at how much the plane ticket costs to get there. I really don't think three days on a boat is the most wise use of time. Please pray for this small village church. 

I asked Carlos, the pastor of this newly affiliated church about his wife, and kids. He told me he and his wife Isabel have several children. He told me that they have Esther 20, Priscilla, 18. After 5 minutes he said ‘and Ronaldia he is 4 years old’ He has 9 kids all 2 years apart from Esther down to Ronaldia. This man is a lovely example of a humble jungle pastor who has a love of the Lord,  and a desire to do the best for his people, but no support financially or spiritually.  I have no idea how this works strategically, but we have a great and big God. We need start to pray for an Oikos boat, and an Oikos plane (faith like a mustard seed?). I am starting to understand a little of what Paul the apostle went through to take the gospel to the ends of the Earth.

Doria praying for her husband and leader of Oikos Selva, Marcial.

During the conference we also saw many leaders and pastors blessed by the Holy Spirit, when praying for them after the practical prayer ministry session. This was the most powerful experience of God that I am sure that most of these Shipbo pastors and leaders have experienced. Many of the testimionies after talked of this mighty wind (like Pentecost in Acts 2?) coming and blowing them over. Also there was an overall feeling of love from God manifesting. 

The loving couple of Charmian and Dennis talking on  covenant between spouses

During this session one of the highlights of the conference has to be that a women said she didn’t know how to pray for other people, and didn't feel comfortable doing it.The reason why? She wasn't a Christian yet! Charmian had the honour of leading her to the Lord, a wonderful blessing. 

God's ways are not our ways: Travel Problems

Jungle: November 2012: Part 1 

God has been using me more and more in the jungle, and I think it is fair to say that I feel highly blessed each time I go. This time was certainly challenging, especially in the area of transportation but God used the situation for His glory...

The Church with newly completed roof where the Learning Community happened

Our plan was for the team, Ronald, Nancy and I (with Dennis and Charmian, fellow church leaders and friends) to arrive on Monday morning and then do the learning community conference from Monday afternoon until Thursday afternoon, and on Friday, I (Mark) was to perform the wedding of Erling, a friend and part of our central jungle team to his bride Maritza. However, God had other plans.

Erling and Maritza in their formal outifts

We left our house at 3am Monday and arrived in good time at the airport to  check in.  The plane was full of people going to work on Monday morning, and people with urgent contracts in and around Pucallpa.

As far as we were aware there were no problems, expect our drooping eyes and tired bodies until we reached the departure lounge and the screen said the flight to Pucallpa was delayed. This was not the first time that I have been delayed due to weather so I settled down and started to read my kindle. Ten minutes later the LAN staff member announced the flight had been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions and we would have to find another flight and collect our luggage in the baggage reclaim. As you can imagine this was not widely accepted with joy and was greeted with a lack of understanding (huge understatement) of why the flight was not just delayed until later. 

We were told that we would get flights the next morning, and had to go out to the main check in area to do this. By the time we reached the front of this queue we were offered flights for Tuesday night. I explained that I was leading a conference starting in the afternoon and I needed to be in Pucallpa and not Lima. We reluctantly accepted the tickets for Tuesday night and prayed and thought of other solutions. Meanwhile Anna back at home had cut open her finger from the broken glass of our liquidizer making the morning juice. At this point we felt something was afoot. 

Anna then mysteriously received an email from her sister asking her if everything was ok, because her boyfriend's dad (who we have never met, and he doesn't even know our names!) was woken up by God in the night to pray for us for two hours.  

So we will never know this side of heaven, but God obviously had a reason for allowing that flight to be cancelled! 


It is important to remember that all of this happened before 7am, and so this gave us time to make the decision to get the bus and travel overnight arriving early on Tuesday morning. 

Dennis & Charmian talking about marriage

On previous trips to Pucallpa I had always avoided the bus. Partly because it takes between 16 and 24 hours (compared to a 45minute flight!), and partly due to the immense altitude as the bus crosses the peaks of the Andes.  Mainly, however, I had been discouraged by the 100% negative reactions to the journey by those who had ever made the trip!  But with no flight available within the next 36 hours, we felt that God's leading to get the bus, especially as people from the inner jungle had already arrived in Pucallpa ready for the conference. 

It is times like these when we are acutely reminded that the plans of God are not our plans.  The taxi driver to the bus station needed to talk to me. We were having the usual conversation Peruvian taxi conversation about life, the universe and everything and the driver started to open up to me.  He began to talk about his negative church experience with an established denomination who unfortunately has a tendency to control their people. 

He told us about how he and his wife had been involved with this church, especially his wife, but how over time the demands of the church (which was deemed more important), meant the family no longer spent time together.  
  
This was very interesting as we were going to speak in Pucallpa on covenant and how God is number 1, spouses number 2, kids number 3 and then calling, ministry, and then job if not covered by the other 2. 

Due to all this pressure his wife and he left the church, and have now been separated for a while, and the relationship is very strained. I got the chance and priviledge to listen to him and then to pray for him, a great honour.

This was posed for but you get the idea.

As we arrived at the bus terminal we got the last tickets with an 180 degree seat and left in the afternoon at 1.30pm.  The 16 hour journey arrived in Pucallpa early which was a welcome relief, after sleeping on and off for 13 or so hours, under the influence of a drowsy allergy tablet and 2 anti-sickness tablets. The journey was not as bad as I thought it might have been. I would be willing to do it again if required, although I hope I never have to. 

Three things I remember from this journey: 
1. Waking in the altitudes of the high Andes mountains, in the pitch dark, and struggling to breathe, due to the lack of oxygen at upto 5000 metres, 15,000 feet. 

2. The speed the drivers were driving at on hairpin and roads with sheer drops by our side. The bus had a 90 kph  speed limit (60 mph), and had a speed alarm which sounded at 91kph. The brief times I was awake and conscious I must have heard the alarm 5 or more times in a matter of 10 minutes.   
3. The strange choice of films chosen by the lady in charge of meals and customer care. Let me just say they were not family viewing!

The travel problems did not end upon arrival. On day 3 we were trying to get a refund for our cancelled flight.  Unfortunately, the LAN phone rep. managed to cancel both the outgoing and the returning flight.  Suddenly, the reality of having to make a return bus journey on my birthday was looming. 

Wednesday afternoon we visited the LAN office.  Apparently the flight hadn't been cancelled. 

Friday afternoon, we returned to the LAN office just to check that the flight hadn't been cancelled.  It had. 

Fortunately, the LAN rep in the office that day was very helpful, although she could do nothing about the cancelled flight.  She could get us on a now much more expensive flight though! 

However the Lord is sovereign and He had a plan. Eventually, a LAN rep found us a cheap internet flight home on my birthday - with a rival airline! He even booked it for us! 

Pucallpa May 2012: Uncle Bob

The churches from San Juan

Shaun teaching on teaching!

Another powerful thing we saw was the breaking of the Spirit of religion. One particular man in one of the churches, who we will call Uncle Bob saw an amazing change in his life during the 4 days of the Learning Community. (Uncle Bob is the uncle that is just a little bit akward, seems to have an opinion that is different from everyone else, and at times has little social awareness, or awareness of what others think of him (or her)). The man has been a bit of a pain to us in previous visits as he seems to dampen a lot of what we say, always has an opinion, which is not normally helpful, and also asserts his position, which is extremely unclear. 

Well Uncle Bob was behaving like Uncle Bob at the beginning of the week. Each of the groups had their challenges and there was no exception in Uncle Bob´s group as it felt like walking through treacle at first. However the cracks began to show on Tuesday, and Wednesday the dam opened. Uncle Bob stood up and said Í'm like a Pharisee I am very religious´: I wasn´t there to see it happening but I saw the difference in Uncle Bob after.

Nancy talking about discipline, the slide behind is in Shipibo.

I also saw him being hugged by Shaun 24 hours later during ministry, and this child of God was crying like a child who finally understood the love his Dad has for him. Powerful stuff. I would pay to see stuff like that, and I am being supported to see it.Thank you to those of you who let me do this. Overall the week was an amazing sucess.

Michelle and Nehemias, Marcial and Doria´s two youngest kids

 I could say so much more but we now have joy of supporting this into a complete change in churches across the jungle, one by one, one step at a time. We are planning another one visit in November and then 2 next year, more people, more churches, more lives changed. I love my job.

  

This is all of us involved in the first Shipibo learning community (Sorry about the photo)

Pucallpa May 2012: Shipibo Women

AnnaLou with Ana one of the leaders in San Juan

AnnaLou said to me in our lunch time meeting on Wednesday ´you are starting a feminist revolution with the Shipibo women´. What she was saying is that I was beginning to help a process of empowering women, especially in ministry.

I  have been learning recently about leadership in covenant, and how when we use discipleship as our operating system, and not church the leader of the church is two in one and not just one man (as is the norm). This means that Anna and I are the leaders, not just myself on my own. We have been very blessed in this area as we have done this from the beginning of our ministry here in Peru, mainly due to the fact that until recently it has only been Anna and I in our team, and as an extrovert I have needed Anna´s wisdom and counsel. 
 I was sharing this with all the Shipibo leaders  at most potential opportunities and I could see that  God was doing something special.

The Leaders from Calleria with Vilma in pink.

 He was changing a culture. Normally the Shipibo culture is a male dominated structure where the man is the dominant leader. He has been the hunter gatherer  and the women have had to follow. This actually happens physically as well as the women follows behind the man when they are walking to a destination, and never to the side.  Added to this men receive education and their wives rarely receive the same opportunities. This is now changing but it means that female leaders over thirty are reticient in general to speak in Spanish, only Shipibo, not the case with male leadersIn addition the men have thought that a woman has no role in ministry as they are uneducated and have no giftings. This has now begun to change since this community experience. Nearly every single female leader in the learning community was speaking 10 times more by the end of our time together than at the beginning.

Cazilda sharing her testimony about how God is showing her new things



Doria being prayed for by Nancy



Doria, Cazilda, and Vilma know they have a role now, one that will help not just their lives, and their family´s live, but many other families and Shipibo women, as well as non Shipibo tribeswomen, and even men.

This can be easily highlighted by a testimony from Doria sharing how she now knows she can now teach the women how to love Jesus better. Even though it has been a real struggle for her to even understand the teaching,and especially trying to understand the discipleship mentality of covenant partnership. Her fears have been replaced by faith. She says that she now know what she is called to do for the rest of her life, in her words, ´until she dies´.

Pucallpa May 2012: Introduction

 


The youth of Calleria

 Therefore we really fired up and ready to go when we arrived in Pucallpa and we had seen amazing stuff happen within the training times. However the plan of God is different from ours at times and this was the case this time. When we arrived in Pucallpa we found that many people that were supposed to come, hadn´t for many reasons, and some people had come who were not in the original plan, so to speak.  


Calleria´s main street 

  

Leaders from Caimito, and Junin Pablo far above
Daniel with Marcelo one of the leaders in Calleria

We had some leaders from San Juan, , leaders from Calleria, no leaders from Egipto, and leaders from churches in 2 different villages, 24 hours away by boat, called Caimito, and Junin Pablo. Therefore we had 4 churches represented and by the end of the time this had grown to 5 churches. One of the pastors is planning to move to another village in the next 6 months and plans to start a new church there, but wants to do it under our leadership. This excites and overwhelms me in equal measure as I know it is what we are called to do, but it is happening much quicker than I expected. However more exciting than the churches wishing to be under our guidance and leadership, more exciting than we are touching churches which are in the middle of the Amazon jungle, is what God did and is doing in the lives of the people and leaders in these communities, especially the women, and also the healing we saw and will continue to see.

Catch the Fire in Pucallpa

Astra showing how she loves the young ones no matter where she is.

The traditional dance and dress of the Shipibo women welcoming us.

After the ILSOM conference we went to the jungle with the Catch the Fire team. This was Mark's eighth visit to the jungle, and third to the Shipibo village of Nuevo san Juan where we are supporting the church. We had an amazing time there even though we arrived Sunday night and returned to Lima on the Wednesday morning. Pucallpa's weather welcomed us on Monday as it rained like only happens in tropical climates until about 2-3pm.

Angela, part of our church leadership, being the joker that she is.

Following the rain the blessings began. Our intern Haseena, who is a doctor, when not in Peru was able to visit some of the houses in the village.

Haseena with a small proportion of the kids in the village.

We also had a few of the team praying for the people who received medical attention. In this first house we saw our first healing, as the founding pastor's wife, who was partially deaf in one ear, and completely deaf in the other was able to hear better than some of the Catch the Fire team who were testing that this lady wasn't just trying to make us feel better, and was really supernaturally healed. God is good.

Praying for the church members and visitors, just before we left.

We also were able to give out 6 suitcases of donations that the team had brought with them, shoes, clothes, toys, and toiletries. This took nearly 2 hours to finish doing, and again was a real blessing to me, seeing kids without shoes, having shoes for the first time.

Tuesday was also an amazing day of blessing, as we were able to serve food to the whole village. Over 450 people were present. Some people had a stable meal for that day. Also we saw over 250 people when we set up our makeshift medical clinic. Photos to follow.

We also finished with an amazing church service with over 200 people present and many recommitting their lives to God and the church. We also got to pray for every person in the church.

I am already awaiting my 9th visit which are going to do just after Christmas.

It is such a blessing to work with people who are so hungry and needy.

Stationary Appeal Photos

We want to say a big thank you to all the people who gave to our stationary appeal this year. I (Mark) had a target in my mind of how much I wanted to raise and we exceeded this, which means we have been able to do more with this money. The initial campaign was to be able to help those disadvantaged families in our church in Pacifico de Villa. We were able to do this. Please see the pictures below….

Marcelo with his dictionary.

Llilida, Jose, Ruth, Veronica, and GustavoNicole with her exercise book and material for art.Jesica y Jhonji with the exercise books for Jesica's brother.Ruth with her exercise books for secondary school

Due to our exceeded budget we were also able to send stationary to our church in the jungle and the school in Ventanilla where we are associated. Also I felt that God wanted us to support Pamela a member of our church in Pacifico who has 4 years left of her schooling, but she is too old to receive it ‘free’ from the state. One option for people like Pamela is that she can do accelerated learning and do her 4 years in 2, but this needs to be paid for. With the money we have received we can now help her to do this. I felt this was the correct thing to do in January.

Pucallpa November 2010 Part 2

Day 2. Early set off on the river. This time we used a quicker boat than previous times, so this time we arrived in just over an hour, rather than between 3-4 hours. What a difference! We split the morning into 2 sessions, I taught the first session on how our Christian life should be balanced UP (our relationship with God), IN (our relationship with the church at large) and OUT (our relationship with those who are not yet in the church). Mark speaking with Antonio translating. I spoke for 15 minutes, the preach was 1 hour 10 minutes!!

This was well received, as were the small groups where we gave the people chance to share about their lives. We finished our time with them by sharing a humble meal of fried plantains and rice.

Following our return to the port John Mark and I wanted to buy a small snack and after asking the lady what was for sale she asked me if I wanted to buy a monkey. The 'friendly' Monkey

My response was ‘how much’? She said ‘120 soles’ about 40 dollars or 25 pounds. I’m sure I could have bartered her down, if I’d actually wanted to buy it. The lady then showed us the monkey, which was allegedly friendly, but did start to growl at us when we approached it. Following the monkey jumping and dancing, we returned back to Pucallpa and our hotel. We had a wonderful meal in the evening at the La Rueda restaurant which I have visited each time I have been, and was pleasantly full, which cannot be said for my American friends who ordered too much. Unfortunately we split the bill three ways!!